


Love From the Ashes

by thekingslover



Category: How to Get Away with Murder
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fallout AU, M/M, dystopian au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-25
Updated: 2015-06-25
Packaged: 2018-04-06 03:55:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4206990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thekingslover/pseuds/thekingslover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There’s no room for love in a world burning out. And moments of happiness never linger. But when Oliver places kisses atop each of Connor’s bandages and holds him even after he falls asleep, Connor’s sure he’s in love anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love From the Ashes

Connor hasn’t survived by being brave. He’s survived by being _smart_. He’s a bounty hunter but he picks his battles. He avoids most. He only pulls his gun if it’s in a fight he’s sure he’s going to win.

In a small outpost of the edge of a long abandoned town, a medic named Oliver takes Connor into the back room, cleans out his wounds and bandages them.

There’s no room for love in a world burning out. And moments of happiness never linger. But when Oliver places kisses atop each of Connor’s bandages and holds him even after he falls asleep, Connor’s sure he’s in love anyway.

They’ve danced around their feelings for years. Connor kisses Oliver’s eyelids, his cheeks, his lips, but he never says the words. Oliver touches him like he knows anyway, feather-light, and when morning comes and it’s time for Connor to move on, to hunt new bounties, Oliver stands in the doorway watching him go. Connor looks back until he can’t anymore.

Connor knows it can’t go on like this forever. But he always thought that whatever bad thing would happen would happen to _him_. A bounty might get the drop. Or he’d trip and break a leg. Or get eaten by a mutated bear.

He never expected that one day he’d return to the small outpost where Oliver lives and find it a crater.

“Oliver?” he whispers at first, disbelieving. But then stronger, a shout, as he tears forward. “ _Oliver?!_ ”

He abandons his pack but keeps his gun. If there is even one living bandit around here, Connor is going to _destroy_ them. He’s going to tear them piece from piece until there isn’t even enough left to -

He stops at the edge of the crater. There’s charred earth and rubble. Ash.

Connor falls to his knees. He should have said it. He should have told Oliver how he felt. Happiness doesn’t linger. Love is impossible.

But he had felt both with Oliver.

“Connor?”

Connor readies his gun and turns, snapping up to his heels. The gun hits the dirt when he sees Oliver stepping out from an abandoned house across the street.

He means to say Oliver’s name - to _shout it_ \- but he’s having trouble finding his voice. Only his legs work, forcing him forward. He runs again, fast and sure.

Oliver, arms open, catches him halfway.

They’re in the middle of a cracked and broken street. The houses are dilapidated. The outpost is a simmering hole in the ground.

But Oliver’s in Connor’s arms. He’s _alive_. And everything is perfect.

Because he’ll burst if he waits even a second more to say it, Connor whispers, “I love you.”

Oliver smiles. “I love you, too.”

They don’t let go for a long time.

In the morning, they leave the abandoned town and head west.

“There’s a city,” Oliver tells him, relaying the information he’d collected from other survivors on the radio. “The grass grows. They have crops. People are rebuilding. There’s police and sunshine and homes.”

Connor thinks, _home is where you are_. Instead of saying it, he squeezes Oliver’s hand.

“That’s where the others went,” Oliver explains. “We burned the outpost to keep the scavengers away.”

“You stayed? Why?”

In reply, Oliver kisses him.

Connor pulls him close and keeps him there for a while. _I’ll never leave you behind again_.

It takes a few months, but they make it to the city. It’s everything Oliver had heard.

The world’s rebuilding. It’s starting here.

And hand in hand, Connor and Oliver help.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on my tumblr coliver sideblog 'monicashipscoliver'. Thanks for reading :D


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